Yeah AMD screwed the pooch but Intel wants to screw all of us.
How so? If Intel is providing the best product out there, then most people will buy it and ignore their underhanded dealings since its the outcome they're interested in. I'm not screwed in any way because of how Intel has behaved. If AMD dies and Intel raise their prices due to a lack of competition, big deal. AMD would do EXACTLY the same thing if the roles were reversed. No-one is innocent here.
I dunno. From what I've observed, whenever people have ideas about doing cool stuff like with robots and home automation and whatnot, they find out about all the shit they have to learn (including the stuff that's not necessarily fun, but necessarily to do what's required). Since most people are only interested in the outcome rather than the journey, given most people have not that much free time anyway (and especially given the amount of failure it takes before something even moderately cool MAY eventuate after a lot of toil and effort)... eventually the person's enthusiasm quickly disappears and they go back to gaming - which provides instant reward for one's actions, even if it's superficial.
When it comes to tech, logic goes out the window though (particularly on Slashdot). People denigrate things just because of who made it rather than the object itself. Such people are pathetic because, well, they ruin any ability to discuss products without flame-wars starting.
If the products them are rubbish, then that's another thing. But every single review I've read about things like the Surface and Windows phones (particularly the Nokia ones) are that they are VERY well-built and designed, hardware-wise, and that the UI is extremely smooth and doesn't crash. However, they are locked down and lacking in apps, the latter of which probably has a significant reason in keeping the usage levels low.
Hugh has stated in several interviews that he (and/or his family) didn't really like living in the US, not necessarily because of it being a bad places, but just that the UK is their home. The only reason he was in the US really was due to House. That show is over. I'd think being the Doctor would be enough incentive to move back.:)
Plus the riots happened over a decade ago. Rare events such that those which happened in 1992 don't really necessitate being armed to the teeth in the future, unless there's regular or semi-regular occurrences.
FOSS is a design choice, and ultimately a means to an end. It should never be the end itself, particularly if it's severely unsuitable due to a lack of functionality compared to its alternatives (which might well be propritary).
People hate Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and Autodesk. Guess which companies continue to prosper despite FOSS alternatives...
A lot of people DO leave their home countries for a better life elsewhere. A shitload of people do actually. It just so happens that leaving the US to go elsewhere is somehow noteworthy - as if anyone would willingly want to leave the US.
In my experience, the only people who laugh at Windows Phones/Tablets are people who feel the need to define themselves by the products they use or don't use (also known as fanboys).
Such people are fucking pathetic and aren't worth caring about.
I don't live in the US, much less LA (kinda obviously). I'm not pro or anti gun, but I am curious why an LA shopkeeper can't make do with a 9 round mag.
From your link it seems the actual danger is in copy/pasting and then hitting enter BEFORE looking at what it is you typed. If you select something to copy, then paste and notice the pasted output is significantly difference to what you selected, alarm bells should ring very quickly (unless the difference is really subtle of course).
Then again, this seems mostly hypothetical. Does anyone actually have an example of something like this being used in a nefarious way on a Linux site?
Linux is much easier to exploit than Windows. All of its internals are well understood, and there are more things one can do with shell access.
2003 is calling. They want their FUD back.
If it's FUD, explain WHY it's FUD. To a lot of people this sounds fairly reasonable and logical - the internals are open and accessible, hence flaws should also more easily visible compared to a closed system. Honestly it can also seem logical enough to me to question why it's FUD to think otherwise.
If you're suggesting that its openness also means rapid fixes, there's enough anecdotal evidence to suggest this doesn't always happen in practice.
It's this kind of misguided fanaticism by the FSF that makes hairyfeet despise the greater Linux community and ruin any chance of demonstrating that yes, there are some Linux users who are actually reasonable humans.
This is not about taking sides! If I have a problem is Steam, that doesn't automatically make me a fanboi of something else. I'm not a fanboy of GOG for example, I just prefer their style of selling DRM files straight through the browser and permanently accessible so long as the user's not an idiot and keeps backups. But GOG has its problems as well. This doesn't have to be a black or white, all or nothing scenario. There are levels of gray.
It sounds like you're suggesting that since the potential issues with Steam's longevity are relatively minor and (hopefully) relatively unlikely, that there's no threat at all. This is short-term thinking - thinking about the now rather than any longer-term ramifications. There's no doubt that games with DRM have artificial lifespans, and the fact this is considered acceptable when it doesn't have to be is rather distressing for me to see, because without sufficient opposition to it, you'll see its acceptance taken with more and more software until nearly ALL software will use such authentication DRM, because hell, everyone will be used to it. We'll have no choice in the end, because we'll have given it up
This isn't even FUD because the clamping down of freedom and personal control on the software (and hardware) we purchase has been occurring in increase measures in recent times, and you can bet it'll keep happening if people don't make a stink.
I'd be happy with Steam doing its thing if there were some legitimate options. Way too many PC games these days use Steam as the sole platform, and with many good reasons. But if larger publishers sold games DRM free as downloads similar to GOG, then I wouldn't complain because we'd have OPTIONS. But alas, that isn't happening except for extremely rare cases.
As for mashed potatoes on your pizza, that's just unforgivable.:)
Here's a question: if the alternative (in this case LibreOffice) is WORSE than what you're already using (MS Office), why would you be so eager to move towards something that you clearly find substandard?
Not trolling here - legitimate question, since I've seen people wish to move away from Office (and Windows for that matter) many times and fail because the alternatives aren't sufficient. You might not like MS Office, sure it has its fair share of problems, but if it's still the best solution after so many years, I'd imagine one would start to lose their eagerness to move if the alternatives are still worse.
But how do these "doom scenarios" affect you? If they annoy you so much, consider why. Maybe you've been brainwashed into thinking Steam's the best thing out there and has no flaws. Maybe you have invested so much into the Steam platform and Valve's trust that if Steam were to crumble, or the client no longer connects, or you have unresolvable account problems (any number of issues which people have posted Steam forum threads over), you can't bear the thought of being proven wrong.
If you're really so confident that Steam will be around forever and that Valve will never act like dicks, and that everything will always be cool in the PC gaming world, then really, the people who AREN'T so sure about such things shouldn't really be bothering you that much.
I know that Valve have lots of bank. Heck they have enough fanboys to last them quite a while. But no-one is too big to fail, and history has shown this. You say there's zero evidence. Well there aren't too many Steam-style platforms that have existed so far, so history is a bit scant. But I don't trust corporations to do the right thing by me, you have to look out for yourself once in a while, and if you're putting down money for software, you need to know you can still use it independently of the vendor. Otherwise you're permanently leashed, and that's a horrible situation to have to be in.
As for GOG games not working in Windows, people have reported some older games in Steam not working in newer versions of Windows (64 bit Windows 7 for example). I believe some older X-Com Windows titles had this issue, but Valve never addressed this. Don't ask for any more specifics because I only remember reading the relevant forum a very long time ago. Point being, incompatibility DOES happen at times and Steam's not immune.
As for niche OS's, I don't use them much. "Free as in freedom" flag? I'm not a fucking zealot, you clearly have something against Linux users and brush them all with the same stereotype. Get the fuck off Slashdot once in a while and work in a research laboratory to see how professionals use Linux, not the kids on OMGUbuntu.
Shit, at this point I'm not sure why I'm bothering to reply. I was trying to be civil and discuss this as diplomatically as possible, but right now you're acting like a stubborn, arrogant American who doesn't listen to any opinion but his own. You're sooooo right, no-one else can have a valid position. God I'm glad your country is so fucked up sometimes.
Yeah. I've found the only real solution for those context-sensitive toolbars is to affix them on a permanently visible toolbar, such as one of the top two. You can also enable showing of the drawing toolbar at the bottom and put them there. Less distrations and no moving around of the page.
If you want formatting that is relatively stable, you can't use an Office-style tool at all. They are just not well suited for the job.
So what do people use then? LaTeX? Good luck. Even with editors like LyX it's still a pain in the ass and only geeks would be inclined to give it a go when it's counter-intuitive to what most people are used to (what? I can't create multiple blank lines by hitting enter several times? Word can!)
Funny that for something that's supposedly not stable with formatting, my wife's Scout group can interchange files with her, me and the group members' separate versions of Word (and possibly different versions of Office/Windows) without fucking things up. The only issue is when you decide to use exotic fonts not likely to appear on other machines. But if you're using Office's Calibre default font, which looks nice enough, or any of the other typical fonts like Arial and Times (or anything with Windows really), you're golden. Mac users are fine as well because Office there installs the same matching fonts.
It's imperfect, but it's the most accessible option available so far.
I don't see how being accustomed to MS Office has any connection to LibreOffice/OpenOffice's failure to properly handle MS Office formats. If it munges up the file outside of MS Office, it's useless.
I do prefer MS Office because the many many years of iterations and the extremely massive userbase compared to OO/LO definitely shows. Having said that, I'm flexible. I can use LibreOffice just fine, even if it's a bit incapable at times (heck, until the very recently release beta of LO 4.1, you couldn't even rotate images within the Writer word processor!). But its limitations and lack of polish, coupled with the lack of strong compatability with the defacto MS Office formats, signifiantly reduces its viability.
About the only advantages LO has to MS Office is it's free and works on Linux. I've lost faith in the quality of Linux distributions and so don't bother with it much anymore for desktop/laptop use, and the free bit is irrelevant because companies can afford MS Office (it's a sunk cost for most) and it doesn't cost much when spread over time.
I have yet to see anyone in my country (Australia) give a toss about moving to anything other than MS Office.
I've had.docx files which I've loaded in the latest versions of LibreOffice, resaved without making any changes, and finding line spacings and a few other oddities show up when reloaded in either LO or Office 2010. I simply cannot trust LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) anymore when it comes down to the crunch. If you're going to be dealing with MS Office documents, for the sake of your own stress levels as well as avoiding troubles later, just fucking buy MS Office and live in peace. Such is the way of the world.
Indeed. I've tried time and time again to test the practical application of LibreOffice and OpenOffice in corpoate use on many occasions, always make sure to use the latest releases at each time of testing. But I've always come across incompatibilities, missing functionality and just plain awkwardness in their user interfaces which make me quickly miss Microsoft Office.
At this point I've given up feeling sad. Feeling sad if after so many years, incompatibilities are still a problem, is too much wasted emotional energy. I'm the go-to guy for a lot of Linux things at my company, and yet I'm still preferring to use Windows and Office most of the time simply because it fucking works.
Indeed. And besides - companies like Adobe and MS are responsible for producing some of the best-tier software of various categories in the world (Photoshop/Creative Suite and Visual Studio/Office respectively). I'd rather they didn't demise if it meant regressing significantly by going to whatever's second best.
I work for the Australian Government (researcher). If this proposal is accepted (big IF), it'll mean I can choose to use either LibreOffice or Office 2013. For the first time, I'll be able to work on Linux and Windows machines and exchange documents without worry about format incompatibilities or screwing up existing documents. Heck, I might willingly decide to use LibreOffice instead of Office 2013 because I despise the cursor animations, general animations and hence lag Office 2013 introduces which LO doesn't bother with. Could never do that before since compatibility has always been paramount.
Of course, even if it's implemented it'll take forever for existing documents to disappear (or at least enough of them to go out of service) before something like LibreOffice is feasible in corporate use.
If GoG goes under, I don't give a fuck because I back up the installers. If they pull titles, I still have the installers. I guarantee you I'm not the only one who keeps a copy of the installers within my own storage. And of course, said installers which will continue to work well into the future if they ever go belly-up as they don't require communication to the mother ship. Steam validates all the bloody time, so the weak link is there and is dependent on the health of the company, the health of your account, and the health of all the net connections in-between. Given this link is completely arbitrary and not technically required for games to run, it pisses me off.
As for OS X and Linux Steam targets and sells games specifically for these platforms. Even if they're of low user counts, money is still being exchanged for a product which, if said product is denied and cracks are not available, the user has every right to be pissed. Who gives a fuck the userbase is small? It's still a market being sold to, real money and everything.
Any particular reason you're militant against those who have a problem with Steam/DRM? How does it affect you if people don't fall in line and accept? It's just a differing opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
How so? If Intel is providing the best product out there, then most people will buy it and ignore their underhanded dealings since its the outcome they're interested in. I'm not screwed in any way because of how Intel has behaved. If AMD dies and Intel raise their prices due to a lack of competition, big deal. AMD would do EXACTLY the same thing if the roles were reversed. No-one is innocent here.
I dunno. From what I've observed, whenever people have ideas about doing cool stuff like with robots and home automation and whatnot, they find out about all the shit they have to learn (including the stuff that's not necessarily fun, but necessarily to do what's required). Since most people are only interested in the outcome rather than the journey, given most people have not that much free time anyway (and especially given the amount of failure it takes before something even moderately cool MAY eventuate after a lot of toil and effort)... eventually the person's enthusiasm quickly disappears and they go back to gaming - which provides instant reward for one's actions, even if it's superficial.
I may or may not be talking about myself here...
When it comes to tech, logic goes out the window though (particularly on Slashdot). People denigrate things just because of who made it rather than the object itself. Such people are pathetic because, well, they ruin any ability to discuss products without flame-wars starting.
If the products them are rubbish, then that's another thing. But every single review I've read about things like the Surface and Windows phones (particularly the Nokia ones) are that they are VERY well-built and designed, hardware-wise, and that the UI is extremely smooth and doesn't crash. However, they are locked down and lacking in apps, the latter of which probably has a significant reason in keeping the usage levels low.
Hugh has stated in several interviews that he (and/or his family) didn't really like living in the US, not necessarily because of it being a bad places, but just that the UK is their home. The only reason he was in the US really was due to House. That show is over. I'd think being the Doctor would be enough incentive to move back. :)
No need to be a dick.
Plus the riots happened over a decade ago. Rare events such that those which happened in 1992 don't really necessitate being armed to the teeth in the future, unless there's regular or semi-regular occurrences.
FOSS is a design choice, and ultimately a means to an end. It should never be the end itself, particularly if it's severely unsuitable due to a lack of functionality compared to its alternatives (which might well be propritary).
People hate Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and Autodesk. Guess which companies continue to prosper despite FOSS alternatives...
Well aren't you a snarky fuck.
A lot of people DO leave their home countries for a better life elsewhere. A shitload of people do actually. It just so happens that leaving the US to go elsewhere is somehow noteworthy - as if anyone would willingly want to leave the US.
In my experience, the only people who laugh at Windows Phones/Tablets are people who feel the need to define themselves by the products they use or don't use (also known as fanboys).
Such people are fucking pathetic and aren't worth caring about.
I don't live in the US, much less LA (kinda obviously). I'm not pro or anti gun, but I am curious why an LA shopkeeper can't make do with a 9 round mag.
From your link it seems the actual danger is in copy/pasting and then hitting enter BEFORE looking at what it is you typed. If you select something to copy, then paste and notice the pasted output is significantly difference to what you selected, alarm bells should ring very quickly (unless the difference is really subtle of course).
Then again, this seems mostly hypothetical. Does anyone actually have an example of something like this being used in a nefarious way on a Linux site?
If it's FUD, explain WHY it's FUD. To a lot of people this sounds fairly reasonable and logical - the internals are open and accessible, hence flaws should also more easily visible compared to a closed system. Honestly it can also seem logical enough to me to question why it's FUD to think otherwise.
If you're suggesting that its openness also means rapid fixes, there's enough anecdotal evidence to suggest this doesn't always happen in practice.
It's this kind of misguided fanaticism by the FSF that makes hairyfeet despise the greater Linux community and ruin any chance of demonstrating that yes, there are some Linux users who are actually reasonable humans.
Well this would be a shame for Diaspora if anyone actually used it...
This is not about taking sides! If I have a problem is Steam, that doesn't automatically make me a fanboi of something else. I'm not a fanboy of GOG for example, I just prefer their style of selling DRM files straight through the browser and permanently accessible so long as the user's not an idiot and keeps backups. But GOG has its problems as well. This doesn't have to be a black or white, all or nothing scenario. There are levels of gray.
It sounds like you're suggesting that since the potential issues with Steam's longevity are relatively minor and (hopefully) relatively unlikely, that there's no threat at all. This is short-term thinking - thinking about the now rather than any longer-term ramifications. There's no doubt that games with DRM have artificial lifespans, and the fact this is considered acceptable when it doesn't have to be is rather distressing for me to see, because without sufficient opposition to it, you'll see its acceptance taken with more and more software until nearly ALL software will use such authentication DRM, because hell, everyone will be used to it. We'll have no choice in the end, because we'll have given it up
This isn't even FUD because the clamping down of freedom and personal control on the software (and hardware) we purchase has been occurring in increase measures in recent times, and you can bet it'll keep happening if people don't make a stink.
I'd be happy with Steam doing its thing if there were some legitimate options. Way too many PC games these days use Steam as the sole platform, and with many good reasons. But if larger publishers sold games DRM free as downloads similar to GOG, then I wouldn't complain because we'd have OPTIONS. But alas, that isn't happening except for extremely rare cases.
As for mashed potatoes on your pizza, that's just unforgivable. :)
Here's a question: if the alternative (in this case LibreOffice) is WORSE than what you're already using (MS Office), why would you be so eager to move towards something that you clearly find substandard?
Not trolling here - legitimate question, since I've seen people wish to move away from Office (and Windows for that matter) many times and fail because the alternatives aren't sufficient. You might not like MS Office, sure it has its fair share of problems, but if it's still the best solution after so many years, I'd imagine one would start to lose their eagerness to move if the alternatives are still worse.
But how do these "doom scenarios" affect you? If they annoy you so much, consider why. Maybe you've been brainwashed into thinking Steam's the best thing out there and has no flaws. Maybe you have invested so much into the Steam platform and Valve's trust that if Steam were to crumble, or the client no longer connects, or you have unresolvable account problems (any number of issues which people have posted Steam forum threads over), you can't bear the thought of being proven wrong.
If you're really so confident that Steam will be around forever and that Valve will never act like dicks, and that everything will always be cool in the PC gaming world, then really, the people who AREN'T so sure about such things shouldn't really be bothering you that much.
I know that Valve have lots of bank. Heck they have enough fanboys to last them quite a while. But no-one is too big to fail, and history has shown this. You say there's zero evidence. Well there aren't too many Steam-style platforms that have existed so far, so history is a bit scant. But I don't trust corporations to do the right thing by me, you have to look out for yourself once in a while, and if you're putting down money for software, you need to know you can still use it independently of the vendor. Otherwise you're permanently leashed, and that's a horrible situation to have to be in.
As for GOG games not working in Windows, people have reported some older games in Steam not working in newer versions of Windows (64 bit Windows 7 for example). I believe some older X-Com Windows titles had this issue, but Valve never addressed this. Don't ask for any more specifics because I only remember reading the relevant forum a very long time ago. Point being, incompatibility DOES happen at times and Steam's not immune.
As for niche OS's, I don't use them much. "Free as in freedom" flag? I'm not a fucking zealot, you clearly have something against Linux users and brush them all with the same stereotype. Get the fuck off Slashdot once in a while and work in a research laboratory to see how professionals use Linux, not the kids on OMGUbuntu.
Shit, at this point I'm not sure why I'm bothering to reply. I was trying to be civil and discuss this as diplomatically as possible, but right now you're acting like a stubborn, arrogant American who doesn't listen to any opinion but his own. You're sooooo right, no-one else can have a valid position. God I'm glad your country is so fucked up sometimes.
Yeah. I've found the only real solution for those context-sensitive toolbars is to affix them on a permanently visible toolbar, such as one of the top two. You can also enable showing of the drawing toolbar at the bottom and put them there. Less distrations and no moving around of the page.
So what do people use then? LaTeX? Good luck. Even with editors like LyX it's still a pain in the ass and only geeks would be inclined to give it a go when it's counter-intuitive to what most people are used to (what? I can't create multiple blank lines by hitting enter several times? Word can!)
Funny that for something that's supposedly not stable with formatting, my wife's Scout group can interchange files with her, me and the group members' separate versions of Word (and possibly different versions of Office/Windows) without fucking things up. The only issue is when you decide to use exotic fonts not likely to appear on other machines. But if you're using Office's Calibre default font, which looks nice enough, or any of the other typical fonts like Arial and Times (or anything with Windows really), you're golden. Mac users are fine as well because Office there installs the same matching fonts.
It's imperfect, but it's the most accessible option available so far.
I don't see how being accustomed to MS Office has any connection to LibreOffice/OpenOffice's failure to properly handle MS Office formats. If it munges up the file outside of MS Office, it's useless.
I do prefer MS Office because the many many years of iterations and the extremely massive userbase compared to OO/LO definitely shows. Having said that, I'm flexible. I can use LibreOffice just fine, even if it's a bit incapable at times (heck, until the very recently release beta of LO 4.1, you couldn't even rotate images within the Writer word processor!). But its limitations and lack of polish, coupled with the lack of strong compatability with the defacto MS Office formats, signifiantly reduces its viability.
About the only advantages LO has to MS Office is it's free and works on Linux. I've lost faith in the quality of Linux distributions and so don't bother with it much anymore for desktop/laptop use, and the free bit is irrelevant because companies can afford MS Office (it's a sunk cost for most) and it doesn't cost much when spread over time.
I have yet to see anyone in my country (Australia) give a toss about moving to anything other than MS Office.
That's nice.
I've had .docx files which I've loaded in the latest versions of LibreOffice, resaved without making any changes, and finding line spacings and a few other oddities show up when reloaded in either LO or Office 2010. I simply cannot trust LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) anymore when it comes down to the crunch. If you're going to be dealing with MS Office documents, for the sake of your own stress levels as well as avoiding troubles later, just fucking buy MS Office and live in peace. Such is the way of the world.
Indeed. I've tried time and time again to test the practical application of LibreOffice and OpenOffice in corpoate use on many occasions, always make sure to use the latest releases at each time of testing. But I've always come across incompatibilities, missing functionality and just plain awkwardness in their user interfaces which make me quickly miss Microsoft Office.
At this point I've given up feeling sad. Feeling sad if after so many years, incompatibilities are still a problem, is too much wasted emotional energy. I'm the go-to guy for a lot of Linux things at my company, and yet I'm still preferring to use Windows and Office most of the time simply because it fucking works.
Indeed. And besides - companies like Adobe and MS are responsible for producing some of the best-tier software of various categories in the world (Photoshop/Creative Suite and Visual Studio/Office respectively). I'd rather they didn't demise if it meant regressing significantly by going to whatever's second best.
I work for the Australian Government (researcher). If this proposal is accepted (big IF), it'll mean I can choose to use either LibreOffice or Office 2013. For the first time, I'll be able to work on Linux and Windows machines and exchange documents without worry about format incompatibilities or screwing up existing documents. Heck, I might willingly decide to use LibreOffice instead of Office 2013 because I despise the cursor animations, general animations and hence lag Office 2013 introduces which LO doesn't bother with. Could never do that before since compatibility has always been paramount.
Of course, even if it's implemented it'll take forever for existing documents to disappear (or at least enough of them to go out of service) before something like LibreOffice is feasible in corporate use.
If GoG goes under, I don't give a fuck because I back up the installers. If they pull titles, I still have the installers. I guarantee you I'm not the only one who keeps a copy of the installers within my own storage. And of course, said installers which will continue to work well into the future if they ever go belly-up as they don't require communication to the mother ship. Steam validates all the bloody time, so the weak link is there and is dependent on the health of the company, the health of your account, and the health of all the net connections in-between. Given this link is completely arbitrary and not technically required for games to run, it pisses me off.
As for OS X and Linux Steam targets and sells games specifically for these platforms. Even if they're of low user counts, money is still being exchanged for a product which, if said product is denied and cracks are not available, the user has every right to be pissed. Who gives a fuck the userbase is small? It's still a market being sold to, real money and everything.
Any particular reason you're militant against those who have a problem with Steam/DRM? How does it affect you if people don't fall in line and accept? It's just a differing opinion.